GDPR is a stinker.
Just ask any student recruitment director, manager or officer.
At one fell swoop GDPR throws out the marketers' rulebook. It’s not like the good old days. No more implied consent, send this email to every enquiry we have in our CRM, no more getting away with grey area marketing practices. Data Protection 2.0 has arrived.
Under GDPR it's a tougher regime. As I said, it's a stinker. But the good news is that we can help you figure this out from a practical, operational point of view. What changes you will need to make in your recruitment activities, your web forms that collect data, and how to do the right thing.
Many UK universities have yet to bottom out the practical implications for their student recruitment activities and even more are still figuring out how to capture, store and manage student enquiry data in a compliant manner.
Consent will now have to be earned
Under GDPR, consent will now have to be earned. Students who do not see value in what you are offering will simply not give you consent to market to them in the future. And you will now give them new smart tools and make it crystal clear that they are now fully in charge of the relationship's dynamics. The boot will soon be on the other foot.
Getting it right is not necessarily going to be difficult or onerous, just different. For your recruitment officers there are new rules. A few changes to make.
A few new skills to learn
- Consent: All of your Student CRM web forms that collect data from students (enquirers, applicants, alumni, etc) will need to be updated to take account of the new consent obligations.
Evidence: you will have to be able to quickly produce evidence of how each student gave you their consent.
Marketing: you will have to create compliant email, SMS, post and tel campaigns.
Rights: you will have to comply with subjects exercising their new rights.
Policies: it now becomes vital that you have easy access to all of your own University's Data Protection various new policy, procedure and process documents.
You may already be well on the way to compliance by 25 May 2018. That may even seem a long way off today, but it isn't, especially when you consider that your student recruitment officers are already planning their activities for Sept 2018 entry.
Those Universities who help their recruitment teams to embrace the spirit of GDPR will be the winners.
Contact Data Harvesting to see how we can help you to help your recruitment teams to embrace the spirit of GDPR and feel back in control.